ImageTexT: Interdisciplinary Comics Studies

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Baby-Boom Children and Harvey Comics After the Code: A Neighborhood of Little Girls and Boys

Between 1946 and 1964, over seventy-six million babies were born
in America, comprising one of the greatest baby booms the world has
ever known (Jones 2). Their parents, most of whom had lived through
the Depression and World War II, found a thriving postwar economy
and set out to give their children the best of everything. Thus,
children became important consumers, sought out by marketers and
advertisers who tried to satisfy their needs and desires. The comic
book industry, in particular, achieved remarkable success at attracting
baby-boom children, especially boys, who purchased as many as one
billion units a year (Goulart 293). However, by 1954, the industry
was in a state of chaos, as television began to draw viewers and
provide alternative entertainment for comic book readers. Spurred
by the damning allegations of Dr. Fredric Wertham, a psychiatrist
who charged in his best-selling book Seduction of the Innocent (1954)
that comic books contributed to juvenile delinquency, the U.S. Senate
held hearings to investigate the effects of comic-book reading on
America's youth. Following the hearings, the industry enacted a self-regulatory
measure that was patterned after the movie industry's Production
Code established two decades earlier. Adopted in 1954, the Comics
Code limited the kinds of content that would be acceptable in order
for a comic book to earn a seal of approval and reach young readers
through traditional marketing venues. Crime and horror comics – especially
those distributed by Max Gaines's E.C. Comics – which had been
previously been bestsellers, lost their popular audiences, and some
publishers were forced to go out of business or change their strategies.
In Seal of Approval: The History of the Comics Code,
Amy Kiste Nyberg notes that the impact of the Code began to take
hold in 1955-1956, "since most of the comic books on the newsstands
in early 1955 were actually created prior to the implementation of
the code. But gradually the type of comic book that had caused so
much trouble for the industry disappeared, and what remained were
romance, teen, and funny animal comics" (127).

Despite the uncertainty that the Code exerted in an industry already
confronted with change and economic challenges, many companies did
flourish, leading to what came to be known as the Silver Age of American
Comics (1955-1969). According to comics fan and Silver Age historian
Craig Shutt, the Code "ensured that all the comics coming out had
adventures that parents felt safe allowing little kids to read, and
little kids read them in abundance because they were a lot of fun
on a little-kid level. Writers found creative ways to work within
the Code restrictions and produced a generation of all-ages comics
in the process" (Shutt 21). One of companies to achieve success under
the Code was Harvey Comics – begun in 1941 by Alfred Harvey
Wiernikoff, later known simply as Alfred Harvey – which crystallized
its orientation and emerged as a powerhouse. The son of Russian Jewish
immigrants, Alfred Harvey opposed the Code on principle and became
one of its most outspoken critics, but by serving the needs of the
nation's youngest comic book readers, his company excelled, becoming
one of America's top comics producers by 1956 (Nyberg xii, 126).
Following the Code, Harvey abandoned its horror fare and focused
on very young readers – from six to twelve years of age, especially
girls – with humorous stories featuring cute, doe-eyed child
characters such as Little Dot, Little Audrey, Little Lotta, Casper
the Friendly Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, Spooky, Richie Rich,
and Hot Stuff the Little Devil. These characters found a ready-made
audience among baby-boom children.

In Comic Books and Development, Marc Potenza, Paul
Verhoeff, and Erica Weiss note "the paucity of research investigating
what role comic books might have on child and adolescent development" but
speculate that "the fantasy world of comic books provide[s] a realm
. . . to explore thoughts and feelings safely" (1573). This observation
seems especially pertinent with regard to Harvey Comics' central
themes and their influence on children during the Silver Age of American
Comics. On one hand, Harvey Comics – not unlike Dell and Gold
Key that cultivated the same audience – reflected the conservatism
of their times. At the same time, however, the Harvey Comics' neighborhood
provided a setting for stories that often contradicted popular stereotypes,
accepted unorthodox friendships, celebrated individuals' rights to
be different and have fixations, made the frightening seem friendly,
and stressed community and cooperation, rather than violence, assertion
of power, or action, as a way of solving problems. Through an analysis
of Harvey Comics and the target audience they served, one can gain
insight into the dynamics of the comic book industry and the institution
of childhood in postwar America, as well as the implications of both
for the twenty-first century.

Although Harvey Comics found their niche among American children
in the 1950s and 1960s, the company had been around long before,
publishing in a diverse array of comics genres. The earliest Harvey
comics date back to the beginning of what collectors call the Golden
Age of Comic Books (1938-1955), which featured such iconic fare as Action
Comics' Superman, who first appeared in June 1938, and Detective
Comics' Batman, in May 1939. Alfred Harvey, who was born in
Brooklyn on October 6, 1913, began his professional career at the
age of fifteen by drawing up to two dozen advertising cartoons each
week for five dollars each. Like many of his predecessors, he was
lured by the success of Max C. Gaines and others in the comic book
industry in the late 1930s. Determined to make a go of it, he took
a job at Fox Comics, best known for its popular comic The Blue
Beetle, and eventually became managing editor. By 1940, Alfred
grew restless working for Fox and set out to form his own company,
first known as Alfred Harvey Publications, then Family Comics, then
Home Comics. He served as president, eventually employing his twin
brother Leon, as vice president and editor, and their older brother
Robert, as vice president and business manager. The three brothers
renamed the company again, this time simply as Harvey Comics Publications,
Inc., by the late 1940s. Alfred's first book was a novelty in comic
book publishing: a digest-sized book entitled, appropriately enough, Pocket
Comics, featuring Harvey's first star, the acrobatic super
heroine, The Black Cat. The Harveys expanded their line by acquiring
titles such as Speed Comics and Champ Comics from
Alfred Harvey's former employer, Fox Comics. They also licensed and
published superhero material such as Green Hornet and
war titles such as War Victories Adventures.

As the 1940s progressed, superheroes began to lose their appeal
(Shutt 9), and Harvey Comics tried something new to lure readers:
licensing comic strip properties such as Ham Fisher's Joe Palooka,
Al Capp's Li'l Abner, and Milton Caniff's Terry
and the Pirates. By the end of the decade, Harvey had phased
out most of its superhero titles and introduced its "Comic Hits Revival" series,
which reprinted popular newspaper comic strips. The move, which reverted
to a standard practice popular in the mid 1930s, proved cost effective:
Harvey paid a nominal licensing fee rather than hire a staff of artists
and writers to create new stories, and readers scooped up tales of
characters with whom they were already familiar. Other reprint titles
ensued, including Steve Canyon, Kerry Drake, Sad
Sack, Dick Tracy, and Blondie. Harvey
also, in 1950, started an anthology titled Family Funnies,
later called Tiny Tot Comics, that introduced comic
strip characters, such as Mandrake the Magician and Flash Gordon,
into comic books. Harvey's extensive foray into reprints taught the
company a great deal about the appeal of different comics characters.
Over time, a number of child characters appeared in the back pages
of their issues, including Richie Rich, Little Lotta, Little Dot,
and Little Audrey, all of whom would play major roles in the company's
image in years to come [Figure 1, Figure 2, Figure 3, Figure 4].

By the early 1950s, as interest in newspaper reprint books began
to wane and after brief forays into the romance and horror comic
genres, Harvey redirected its emphasis and began building a compatible
set of characters in a community known as Harveyville, later Harvey
World. Acquiring characters that had appeared in Famous Studios'
animated shorts, Harvey created a line of comics that was expressly
designed for an audience of young children and dealt with many of
the social and emotional issues that youths were facing in their
own lives. Further, in an era marked by divisive race, gender, class,
and generational conflicts, Harvey Comics unwittingly offered characters
that gave their child readers blueprints for tolerant and cooperative
behavior that often contradicted popular stereotypes. Although Harvey
Comics continued to publish widely in the standard comics genres
for the next few decades, the Harvey World titles became its signature,
making characters like Little Dot, Casper, and Richie Rich synonymous
with the Harvey name in the public mind.

In Harveyville, child protagonists predominated. Certainly, this
phenomenon was nothing new: action revolved around child characters
in previous comic strips and books as diverse as the Yellow
Kid, Katzenjammer Kids, Captain and the
Kids, Pim Pam Poum, "Beano" with the Bash
Street Kids, Buster Brown, Little Orphan
Annie, Frankie Doodle, Dennis the Menace, Nancy, Henry,
and Little Lulu. However, while these early strips may
have appealed to children, they also targeted adults, who were the
primary readers of newspapers. The Harvey protagonists, on the other
hand, were especially meant for children; thus, Harvey recognized
and validated this special audience – with its distinctive
psychological profile, character, and needs – that up to this
point had been either ignored by the comics industry or offered funny
animal stories. These young children, who were attending elementary
school and had recently begun to read, were cognitively becoming
more aware of themselves and their surroundings, developing their
identities, and navigating relationships with family and peers; they
enjoyed humor and reading about other children in similar situations.
Reading for fun gave them a feeling of control in the reading process,
as well as something to talk and laugh about with their friends (Norton
140). By purchasing their own comics, children felt a sense of ownership
over their content, and as comics historian Denis Gifford notes,
comics publishers were aiming their wares not at parents but specifically "at
kids with hot dimes to spend" (48). Craig Shutt affirms that content
and affordability were key factors in the comics' appeal. "Part
of the reason [the Silver Age] was so cool," he writes, "was that
there were all kinds of comics from all kinds of publishers aimed
at all kinds of kids – and you could get eight to 10 of them
for a dollar!" (17). Thus, even the youngest of baby-boom children,
whose parents felt reassured by the post-Code fare, purchased inexpensive
Harvey comic books themselves, providing them with a sense of independence
and self-esteem that they would forever associate with comics. The
characters and stories contained therein offered additional benefits.

In addition to targeting the youngest readers, Harvey proved to
be an anomaly in another way: in a male-dominated industry, it established
various series of comics starring girls for an audience of girls.
Sherrie Inness, who has written extensively on girls' culture, observes
that "in many ways, girls are inconsequential. Due to their youth
and gender, girls are granted less social stature than men or boys.
They are relegated to an inferior society because of the cultural
stereotype that girls and their culture are insipid and insignificant,
unworthy of close attention" (Inness, Delinquents 1).
However, Harvey took baby-boom girls seriously, providing titles
for their enjoyment and edification and, in so doing, sent messages
regarding the acceptability of certain values, actions, and attributes.
As Inness asserts, such implications in popular culture are revealing: "How
girls are shaped and molded suggest a great deal about how a society
views itself and how it sanctions or rewards certain behaviors. Studying
girls and their cultures can reveal as much about adult culture as
children's culture" (Inness, Millennium 3).

One of Harvey's first little-girl characters, Little Audrey, first
appeared in theatrical cartoons in 1947 and in a 1948 comic published
by St. John; however, Harvey attained the rights to publish her book
in 1952 and then purchased the rights to the character completely
from Paramount Pictures in 1957. Loosely patterned after the very
successful Little Lulu, she became popular with children by the mid
1950s and by 1960 even had her own television show. "Look for me
on TV," proclaimed a blurb on the cover of her comic books, accompanied
by a TV-shaped image of Audrey below the TV-shaped Harvey logo featuring
Matty Mattel, cartoon mascot of Mattel Toys. Wearing a little red
dress with puffed sleeves, white ankle socks, and black Mary Jane
shoes and her hair pulled in two ponytails, one atop her head and
one behind, both tied with blue ribbons, Little Audrey appears to
be an unlikely comics protagonist. However, she is appealing precisely
because she is so normal, allowing little girls to identify with
her, as she embarks on a myriad of activities: boating, fishing,
camping, painting, reading, flying a kite, playing baseball, helping
others, playing jokes on her family and friends, and reacting to
modern media such as television and billboards. Audrey is smart,
independent, confident, and adventurous, as evidenced by the artwork
on the covers of her comics. The covers have a powerful impact as
they are the first images children see as they approach the newsstand.
Good covers help children to decide which comic books to choose.
[Figure 5, Figure 6, Figure 7]

"I have an idea," Audrey frequently intones, as she figures out
some ingenious way to solve problems or get around rules, such as
attaching a fishing line to hang from her airborne kite in order
fish in a "no fishing" area.
[Figure 8] She emerges as a trickster and a fix-it character who handles
childhood experiences and mishaps with aplomb. In her comics, Audrey
has license to daydream, and in these dreams she confronts her fears
and frustrations and usually triumphs over them, in essence becoming
a hero. Thus when she returns to real life (clearly differentiated
with the dream world in Harvey Comics so as not to confuse children),
she can better cope. Audrey's parents scoff at her daydreams, pronouncing
them silly and frivolous, and easily become annoyed by them. Oftentimes,
it seems, they do not understand the meaning of Audrey's daydream rambles
and thus feel left out of her fantasy world. This underscores a key
theme in Harvey Comics and in the generation gap of the 1960s and 1970s:
parents not being able to understand their children. Children in Harvey
Comics always seem to be one-up on adults, exhibiting a higher vision.
They show control, exhibit greater tolerance, and solve their own problems.

Rather than spending time at home with her parents, Little Audrey
is more likely to venture out. Most of the action of her comics takes
place outdoors with her friends, where she is part of a neighborhood
peer group. Melvin, her boyfriend, is in the gang too, and their
relationship plays an important role in the comics. Sometimes Melvin
and Audrey act like boyfriend and girlfriend, even husband and wife;
other times they are combative. This typifies the love/hate relationship
often shared by little girls and boys. In essence, Little Audrey
and her friends recreate a child's peer group and confront common
childhood problems. Melvin, for example, must learn to deal with
his clumsiness and Audrey with Melvin's mischief and life's rules.
They both address the issue of getting along with family and friends,
including people of different genders, races, socio-economic groups,
and body types. For example, while Audrey is white, one of her best
friends is a black boy named Tiny. Most importantly, in Little Audrey
comics, child characters realize their problems, cope with them,
and help one another. Thus, these stories can help child readers
to do the same, making them feel better about themselves. This becomes
especially true for little girls. Audrey, whose panties may peek
from under her dress and whose mother often spanks her, navigates
in a sometimes sexist and regressive world; nevertheless, what predominates
in her storylines is her character: a little girl protagonist – a
rarity in baby-boom comics – who reads, thinks, figures out
solutions, and has things in control.

This is also the case with Little Dot, one of Harvey's original
characters who starred in her first comic book in 1953. Unlike Audrey,
Dot Polka, who wears a red dress with black polka dots and a white
Peter Pan collar, has a fixation – dots. Essentially, Little
Dot is a one-joke character; all of her humor stems from her obsession
with dots. However, this idea has tremendous possibilities, for the
world really is made up of millions of circular-shaped objects. Since
dots are everywhere, it is perhaps not so strange for Dot to be aware
of them and like them. Although Dot's fixation is a bit odd and funny,
it is harmless and safe – just like many children's obsessions;
thus, she gives children permission to be different. Essentially,
Dot is normal, albeit with a single quirk. Her parents, however,
neither understand nor accept this. Dot's father, especially, spends
a great deal of time and energy trying to get Dot to give up dots – but
to no avail. The implication here is that Dot is even more normal
than her parents. Everyone has obsessions – as the numerous
stories about Dot's eccentric uncles and aunts underscore – and
Dot simply indulges hers. In the Little Dot's Uncles and Aunts series,
Dot's own obsession becomes secondary; she, however, has great insight – more
than her parents – into the obsessions motivating her uncles
and aunts. She shows tolerance, understanding, and amazing powers
of observation, seeing dot-shaped items everywhere and using them
creatively to solve her problems and those of others. Like Audrey,
Dot has a higher vision. Also like Audrey, she dreams, and her dream
sequences, characterized by endless numbers of dots, show grand imagination,
providing another outlet for her to demonstrate her love of dots.
[Figure 9, Figure 10]

Little Lotta Plump, another original Harvey character whose first
comic book appeared in 1955, exemplifies another obsession. The story
lines of Little Lotta comics revolve around a couple key points:
the corpulent Lotta's voracious appetite and love for food and her
superhuman strength. Just as Little Dot's father tries to stop her
habit, so too does Little Lotta's, but his meddling causes further
problems: by trying to prevent his obese daughter from eating, he
only inspires her to gorge more. Big and blond, Lotta is likable
and competent, but sometimes her weight and strength get her into
trouble. Like Audrey and Dot, she is accepted as a part of the gang,
not discriminated against due to her body type. Her strength enables
her to act like a superhero, moving things out of the way or helping
her shy, diminutive, bespectacled boyfriend Gerald. She solves crimes
and catches robbers, hoping one day to be a member of the Bonnie
Dell Police Department. Her underlying message can be particularly
powerful to young girls: be happy with yourself, your weight, and
those different from you, and use your strength to your advantage.
[Figure 11, Figure 12]

In another title, Casper, the Friendly Ghost, Harvey
creates a different neighborhood gang – one set in the fantasy world
of Enchanted Forest. Casper made his debut in Famous Studios animated
cartoons in 1945, and after a few unsuccessful attempts by St. John
to make Casper the star of a comic book, Harvey came out with its
version of Casper, the Friendly Ghost in 1952. Casper
comic books sold briskly during the postwar years, as evidenced by
their annual circulation of 36,000,000 in Casper's heyday. Their
appeal may be linked to psychologists' suggestion that comic books
allow "for a safe and unique medium to explore new and potentially
threatening ideas" (Potenza 1573). Unlike other ghosts in popular
culture, Casper is friendly, not scary, fulfilling the same role
for children as friendly dinosaurs or dragons over which they have
control. Casper is the star of a bright fantasy world, not one associated
with death and gravestones. In order to preserve this concept, Harvey
does not give Casper an origin story; it is implied that he was born
a ghost.

Yet while Casper's world is fantasy, it still bears resemblance
to a child's real world. Not unlike other children, Casper tries
to make friends and be good; however, his intentions are often thwarted.
Afraid of Casper's ghostly appearance, potential friends run away
in terror, and Casper is left alone. A Cinderella figure, Casper,
under the domination of the evil Ghostly Trio, is often prevented
from doing all the good that he would like. Ultimately, though, Casper
helps and befriends those who are different from and initially afraid
of him, making his audiences aware of the inadvisability of prejudicial
snap judgments and the value of unlikely friendships. He prepares
children for growing up in a world of diversity.

Throughout the 1950s and 1960s Casper became extremely popular
with children and their parents alike, becoming second only to Disney's
Mickey Mouse in worldwide recognizability (Arnold 25). He appeared
on television in The New Casper Cartoon Show, which
debuted on ABC on October 5, 1963, and featured new made-for-TV cartoons
based on comic book stories. The show ran on Saturday mornings through
1969, always keeping "new" in the title, even though new episodes,
twenty-six in all, were produced for only the 1963-1964 season. Casper
merchandise, including coloring books, glasses, towels, storybooks,
and toys, appeared everywhere, and Casper characters even made personal
appearances to promote good causes. By the 1970s, Casper was a spokesperson
for UNICEF, General Electric, Collegeville Costumes, NASA's Apollo
16 flight to the moon, Major League Baseball's National League, the
American Dental Association, the Boy Scouts of America, and Ralston-Purina's
Sugar Chex (Arnold 19). Because of his high recognition as Harvey's
most famous icon, he was able to pave the way for other characters
in his fantasy neighborhood, including a series of comics featuring
his galloping ghostly horse, Nightmare.

Just as Casper defied the stereotype of the scary ghost, so did
his friend Wendy, the Good Little Witch prove that not all witches
are wicked. Wendy appeared in her first and only theatrical cartoon, Which
is Witch?, released on May 2, 1958, and her first comic, Wendy
the Good Little Witch #1, in August 1960 after a few trial
issues in Harvey Hits during 1958 and 1959. Like Casper,
Wendy is a Cinderella figure who must cope with her evil elders,
the green-faced Witch Sisters. Also like Casper, she is essentially
good, attempting to use her magic to bring about happiness and good
luck. As is the case with most children, however, all that Wendy
attempts does not always turn out as planned. Sometimes her magic
goes awry so that she more closely resembles Mickey Mouse in "The
Sorcerer's Apprentice" than a good little witch. Still, she offers
good intentions and remains good-natured, showing that it is acceptable
to make mistakes.

To contrast Casper and Wendy, the Enchanted Forest features Spooky
the Tuff Little Ghost – distinguishable by his big, black nose,
freckles, derby, and Brooklyn accent – whose main objective
is to create mischief. However, no matter how hard Spooky tries,
he cannot be all bad because he inevitably gets mixed up: when he
sets out to create mischief, it backfires. The result, much to Spooky's
frustration, is that he has helped someone, not scared someone. When
this happens, he just snickers, suggesting that just perhaps he does
not feel overly angry at what he has done. Accompanied by his girlfriend
Poil (Pearl), who tries to dissuade him from scaring people, Spooky
provides a good counterpart to Casper's goody-goody image, and he
also underscores the need to look beyond one's tough exterior.

Hot Stuff the Little Devil, who appeared in his first comic, Hot
Stuff #1, in October 1957, resides in another Harvey neighborhood.
Similar to Spooky, Hot Stuff specializes in mischief but essentially
does good, suggesting that children may misbehave but are inherently
kind. Further, in the tradition begun by Little Dot and Little
Lotta, Hot Stuff tells children that it is acceptable to have a
fixation, in his case, his preoccupation with his hot, sizzling
body. Collectively, Hot Stuff, Casper, Spooky, and Wendy sent a
message to their baby-boom audience to look beyond appearances.
As Harvey historian and collector Mark Arnold writes, "An interesting
aspect of Harvey Comics is their ability to take characters who
would traditionally frighten little children and make them happy
and harmless" (30). Devils, ghosts, and witches are usually terrifying,
the stuff of which nightmares are made. These Harvey characters,
however, are not what on the surface they seem and use cuteness
to placate a child's fears.

A final Harvey children's neighborhood that baby-boom children
embraced stars Richie Rich, the Poor Little Rich Boy, who appeared
in his first starring comic book series in 1960 after being a successful
back-up feature in Little Dot and Little Lotta for
a number of years. At one time, blond, good-looking Richie Rich,
in his blue shorts, black jacket, and big red bow tie, starred in
thirty-eight different comics series, more than any other American
comics character (Benton 95). In addition, Richie has starred in
a Saturday morning cartoon show and had several games, books, and
playthings named after him. By 1977, all Little Dot, Little Lotta,
Little Audrey, Wendy, Spooky, Stumbo, and Baby Huey comics titles
were canceled and replaced with Richie Rich titles, making Richie
Harvey's longest running character and biggest moneymaker (Arnold
34). The richest kid in the world, Richie gets an allowance of $100,000
a week. His family has more money, businesses, property, homes, jewels,
and treasures than all the Rockefellers and European aristocracy
combined. One might suspect that money has tainted the Rich family,
but such is not the case. The Riches are warm, friendly, courageous,
humorous, intelligent, and exciting – not at all conniving or greedy.
A happy family, the Riches care for each other and give generously
to others. Undoubtedly, Richie's parents are more understanding and
compassionate than Audrey's, Lotta's, or Dot's, perhaps because money
enables them to be. The implied statement of the series is that the
more money one has, the less one has to worry. The less one worries
about money, the more one can concentrate on the important things – human
relationships. Again, the Harvey scenario contradicts the stereotype:
the Rich family is not greedy, aloof, or uncaring, just rich.

Richie Rich plots, like those of many other Harvey characters,
revolve around a neighborhood gang, and Richie enjoys having friends
less wealthy than he. Supporting characters such as his girlfriend
Gloria Glad, rival girlfriend Mayda Munny, cousin Reggie Van Dough,
and Dollar the Dog fill the picture. However, the focus in Richie
Rich stories is, of course, money. In a typical Richie Rich storyline,
Richie and guest star Casper must protect money from thieves who
are attempting to steal it. Other Richie Rich plots involve Richie's
saving the day with money. For example, when Richie and his friends
break a store window while playing baseball, Richie remains calm
and simply buys the shop owner a new store. Also crucial to Richie
Rich stories is new technology: Richie has the means to buy any new
gadget he wishes. Through his use of technological wonders, Richie
resembles a superhero in control of his environment. However, Richie
does not need X-ray eyes or super powers. He has money and the power
that money brings, but he does not realize it, simply taking his
fortune for granted. Nor do his friends realize it: they like Richie
just because he is another nice kid in the neighborhood. Although
Richie has money, he does not obsess over it.

Of all Harvey characters, Richie Rich seems to have held the greatest
appeal for children, perhaps because of his emphasis on money. As
baby-boom children grew up, they became more entrenched in reality,
more aware of the power of money. In an increasingly materialistic
age, they may have seen Richie as a sort of consumer's hero. At the
same time, Richie's wealth and technological inventions were so over-
the-top as to be pure fantasy, not really tied to anything familiar,
accessible, or desirable. Thus, baby-boom children adopted Richie
Rich, enjoying his comics' gags involving wealth and money but realizing
their absurdity. Against a fantasy backdrop, Richie was really just
another likable kid in the neighborhood. [Figure 13, Figure 14]

The Harvey neighborhoods that were a mainstay of many baby boomers'
early childhoods have not endured. By the end of 1971, Harvey stopped
publishing its entire line in order to retool all comic books into
fifty-two-page giants instead of the standard thirty-six, a change
that lasted a year. The same year marked the beginning of the major
Richie Rich expansion. By the mid 1970s, as the latter part of the
baby-boom generation passed the Harvey target audience's age and
Harvey's circulation declined, Harvey had canceled most of its titles.
Richie Rich continued to be a huge moneymaker – with a record-breaking
thirty-two titles on newsstands in a two-month period in 1979 – while
Hot Stuff and Casper survived in comics in a more limited way. On
July 7, 1982, the last regularly issued Harvey Comics appeared on
the newsstands, followed by two more previously printed ones around
September 5, 1982. The changing climate in how comic books were distributed
by eliminating them from the grocery and convenience stores and shipping
them only to comic book stores was a major blow to the continuation
of Harvey as a publisher and hastened its closure in 1982. Charlton
and Fawcett (Dennis the Menace) Comics suffered similar fates in
the early to mid-80s.

Harvey's future seemed uncertain as various members of the Harvey
Family, including Alfred's son Alan, struggled for control and eventually
put the company up for sale. At stake were the licensing rights to
Harvey characters, potentially worth more than the sale of any comic
books (Pustz 16). [Harvey vigorously defended its copyright protection,
filing a $50 million case against Columbia Pictures 1984 blockbuster
movie Ghostbusters, claiming that the movie's logo included
the image of a ghost that copied Fatso in Casper's Ghostly Trio;
the U.S. district court dismissed the case ("Who Ya Gonna Call" 77).]
In 1989, Alfred Harvey, the last surviving of the Harvey Brothers,
fell into a coma from which he never recovered (dying in 1994). The
same year Jeff Montgomery of HMH Communications paid a reported $6
million for most of the Harvey World characters (with the exception
of a classic comic strip character Sad Sack) and renamed the company
Harvey Entertainment; it was the object of a takeover attempt in
1999 and acquired by Roger Burlage. Bart Bush of Norman, Oklahoma,
who in 1979 founded the first fanzine devoted to Harvey, lamented
the transition of one of the most influential comics companies of
the post-Code years saying, "Harvey Comics published by Harvey are
now history" (Bush, Letter).

It is a history that needs to be studied. In the twenty-first century,
scholars have continued to assess the content of early comics, as
well as the comics' long-term influence on their target audience
and on subsequent media, but scant scholarship – a paragraph
or at most a page in standard comic book histories – exists
on Harvey. The privately held company gave out little information,
financial or otherwise, beyond standard character profiles. Readers
learned little, for example, about the contributions of longtime
editor Sid Jacobson, who served from 1951 to the present, and continues
to shape the Harvey image. Further, the content of Harvey comics – including
the distinctive artwork of Warren Kremer, Ernie Colon, Marty Taras,
Howard Post, Sid Couchey, and many others – has been especially
hard to study because older Harvey Comics in usable condition are
difficult to locate. Because Harvey Comics were read by the youngest
readers who usually destroyed them in the process or passed them
along to others, they are scarce, and even comics collectors have
a difficult time assembling complete series. As Harvey fan and collector
Bart Bush asserts, "it is easier to collect a whole set of Supermans or Spider-Mans than Caspers or Little
Dots" (Bush, Letter).

However, the audience for classic Harvey Comics remains a fruitful
area for study. In Comic Book Culture: Fan Boys and True Believers,
Matthew Pustz writes, "Many Americans – especially males – have
read comics, with varying levels of involvement, as children and
hence have some vague familiarity with the medium. Some people read
or looked at a friend or relative's comics, some received comics
as gifts, and some even bought comics. A few people were even seriously
involved with comics for a time. Most of these readers, though, abandon
comic books at some point, deciding that they are not interesting
(or, more likely, not cool), too expensive, or too juvenile" (4).
This may have been the case with some in the vast audience of baby-boom
children who read Harvey Comics as children. More likely, however,
Harvey's childhood tales proved to be a bridge to other titles and
to comics culture in general. Craig Shutt asserts that Harvey "offered
a quantity of titles designated for younger kids excited by comics
but not yet excited by super-heroes" (18). Other readers, especially
girls, transitioned from Harvey Comics to Archie, both of them based
on humor, engaging characters, and the interaction among those in
a peer group (Norton 140). According to Don Thompson and Dick Lupoff
in The Comic-Book Book, in 1973, "well over 90 percent
of American children still read comic books, and – perhaps
more surprisingly – approximately 50 percent of American adults do
the same" (10). Nearly two decades later, Dan Fost reported in American
Demographic that "many of the members of the baby-boom generation
who read comic books during the 1950s are still reading them in the
1990s, and comic book publishers are actively focusing marketing
efforts on these grown-up fans. The comic book industry still considers
children important customers, but baby boomers are the core of the
business" (Fost 16). Recalling the childhood pleasures that comics
brought them, they are also likely to frequent comic book stores
and become comics collectors.

The implications of this are substantial. Comics publishers are
reprinting material from earlier eras to allow baby boomers to give
their children and grandchildren the same media experiences as they
had (Fost 16). A line of Harvey reprints, for example, has recently
begun publication. Harvey characters Richie Rich, Casper, and Hot
Stuff have also made their way into a new series of graphic novels,
distributed in ibook and ebook forms by Simon and Schuster at www.komikwerks.com.
The first volume, The Ultimate Casper Comics Collection,
contains approximately 176 pages and sells for $14.95. In 1990 Mark
Arnold of Saratoga, California, began publishing The Harveyville
Fun Times!, a fan publication devoted to Harvey history, reprinted
material, interviews with artists, and current Harvey news. The
Best of the Harveyville Fun Times!, published in 2006, is
available as an ebook from http://www.lulu.com/thft. In recent years
Harvey news has been extensive, ranging from the releases of movie
versions of Richie Rich (1994), directed by Donald Petrie
and starring Macaulay Culkin, and Casper (1995), directed
by Brad Silberling and co-produced by Steven Spielberg and starring
Christina Ricci; the debut of a musical version of Casper performed
in Pittsburgh by the Civic Light Opera; various Richie Rich, Casper,
and Wendy television specials and straight-to-video releases; a line
of Harvey 'Toon Tumblers, and food promotions, such as a Classic
Media and General Mills' Halloween promotion featuring Pillsbury
Shaped-Refrigerated Cookies in the forms of Casper the Friendly Ghost
and Wendy the Good Little Witch. Harvey characters, which remain
a familiar part of baby boomers' childhoods, linger in popular culture,
showing up on a myriad of licensed properties and items.

Depending on one's childhood memories, this ubiquity of Harvey
nostalgia items both infuriates and comforts baby boomers. Not all
of them share a fondness for Harvey Comics, especially those who
found them too childish and objected to the restrictions in the comics
industry following the Code. Consider, for example, the following
cases in point. On December 7, 1992, Mark Arnold, the publisher of
the Harvey newsletter The Harveyville Fun Times!, participated
in a radio talk show on KITS in San Francisco to discuss his publication,
along with another guest whose fanzine was titled Murder Can
Be Fun!. The program host disparaged Harvey Comics saying, "They
were the worst! They were the most pathetic comic books ever turned
out" (Arnold, "Family"). Thus, what was supposed to be a simple promotional
visit and a chance to talk about the two publishers' respective endeavors
turned into a session in which Arnold had to defend his position
that Harvey Comics even warranted a fanzine. Contrast this with the
Heroes Convention at the Charlotte Convention Center in North Carolina,
a major event held each June. In 2004, conference organizer H. Shelton
Drum, a baby boomer who had just turned fifty the previous March,
reflected in his biographical profile in the conference program on
what got him started in the comics industry. His earliest influences,
he recalled, were "'kiddie' comics, including the Harvey line: Hot
Stuff, Stumbo, Baby Huey and the like" ("The Long and Winding" 4).
These led to a life-long love of comics and a satisfying career in
the field.

Harvey Comics, both shunned and valued, provide an interesting
lens through which to view both the evolution of the comics industry
after the Code and the baby-boom childhood experience in America.
Designed for the youngest of comic book readers, who enjoy repetition
and predictability, Harvey Comics were frequently discarded as children
grew older, and they do not attract collectors with the same intensity
as their Marvel or DC counterparts do. Nevertheless, they often marked
a child's first experience, and often a very positive one, with reading
and the comic book world. For this reason, many baby boomers who
were youngsters during the Silver Age of American Comics recall them
fondly, thereby fueling recent nostalgia movies and merchandise featuring
popular characters in the Harvey line. Harvey Comics filled an important
niche in the comics industry with classic titles that included little-girl
protagonists – Little Audrey, Little Lotta, Little Dot, and
Wendy the Good Little Witch – who defied stereotypes and sent
a message of acceptance of those who are different. In the comics
industry, where products are primarily geared to young males, Harvey
Comics gave little girls stories about them. Although overshadowed
in comics scholarship by action comics' counterparts, Harvey made
a significant contribution to the comics industry, addressing diversity,
class, and body-type issues. The creation of the Harvey World gave
comics' youngest readers insight into unorthodox friendships and
a comfortable and therapeutic place to spend their leisure time.
The benign denizens of Harvey World used cooperation and quick wit
to solve problems, presenting an alternative to the culture of conflict
embodied by the more popular superheroes, and providing a point of
entry for the huge generation of baby boomers to become cultural
consumers in their own right.

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